Women's Basketball 1/28/2015 3:02:00 PM

OCU at John Brown women's basketball preview

Stars enter on 13-game winning streak

Catherine Kruschke notched her first double-double with OCU on Saturday.

6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29
Bill George Arena in Siloam Springs, Ark.

THE MATCHUP: Oklahoma City University faces Sooner Athletic Conference foe John Brown (Ark.) in a rematch of the 2014 NAIA Division I Tournament semifinals.

ABOUT THE STARS: OCU trampled St. Gregory's 105-65 on Saturday in Shawnee, Okla. The Stars (13-1, 8-0 SAC) had a 74-23 rebounding advantage to finish one rebound shy of its single-game program record. OCU pulled in 75 rebounds against Langston on Nov. 27, 1989 and against Texas College on Nov. 14, 2008.
Rateska Brown, a 5-foot-6 senior from Alvin, S.C., produced 21 points, five rebounds and five 3-pointers Saturday. Brown averaged 26.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.50 steals a game last week. She records 20.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.57 steals a game while ranking seventh in the NAIA in scoring average and second in 3-pointers per game (3.71).
Catherine Kruschke, a 6-foot junior from Dublin, Calif., equaled her season high with 18 points while grabbing a season-best 10 rebounds for her first double-double as a Star. Kruschke contributes 6.9 points and 4.9 rebounds a contest. Ouleymatou Coulibaly, a 6-2 senior from Bamako Mali, West Africa, had 17 points, 19 rebounds and three blocked shots. She posted career highs in rebounding and blocks. Coulibaly averages 16.4 points and 8.9 rebounds a game and ranks sixth nationally at 4.2 offensive rebounds a game.
The Stars lead the NAIA with a 37.9 percent 3-point shooting percentage and 19.0 assists a game. To see how OCU ranks statistically in NAIA Division I, click here.
Oklahoma City held onto the No. 2 spot in the latest NAIA Division I rankings. OCU has been ranked in the top 10 in every poll since March 11, 2009 and made the top 25 in all 184 polls since 1999-2000. OCU owns national championships from 1988, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2012, 2014. SAC coaches predicted the Stars would win the league title. OCU has won or shared the SAC regular-season crown 15 times, including the last five in a row.
OCU has a 40-5 record against John Brown. The Stars ousted John Brown from the NAIA Tournament semifinals 67-65 on March 24, 2014 in Frankfort, Ky. Coulibaly chipped in 12 points and 12 rebounds as SAC teams met in the women's Fab Four for the second time ever.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Wayland Baptist (Texas) cruised to a 64-44 win over John Brown on Saturday in Plainview, Texas. John Brown (7-12, 2-6 SAC) managed 27.6 percent shooting from the field while hitting only 20 percent (6-for-30) from the floor in the second half.
Eliana Fernandez, a 5-7 senior, supplied John Brown with 12 points, four assists and two steals. Fernandez pitches in 8.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.74 steals per game. Brooke Barker, a 6-foot junior, had 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks. She averages 9.5 points and 3.6 rebounds this season.
SAC coaches forecasted John Brown to take third in the league.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Latricia Trammell was the 2014 NAIA Division I Phyllis Holmes coach of the year. Trammell has a 68-9 record in her third season as OCU head coach. She guided the Stars to a 16-0 record in conference play in 2012-13. She was OCU assistant to Rob Edmisson in 2005-07, then became Western State (Colo.) head coach from 2007-12. Trammell's college head-coaching record is 133-85 in her eighth year. Trammell has coached six all-Americans and 23 all-conference selections, including two SAC players of the year, an SAC newcomer of the year, Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference player of the year and RMAC West Division freshman of the year. As an assistant at OCU, Trammell mentored the Stars' first WNBA draftee, Mariam Sy of the Washington Mystics, 10 all-conference choices, the SAC player of the year, SAC newcomer of the year and four all-Americans.
Jeff Soderquist is John Brown's winningest women's basketball coach with a 262-291 record in his 18th season. He took John Brown to its first semifinals appearance in four NAIA Tournament appearances. The John Brown alum led the Golden Eagles to their finest season ever in 2013-14 at 28-8.

QUOTABLE: "I am so proud of our team with our rebounding. It's not every day you can say you had 74 rebounds. I was so proud of our effort." – Trammell

FOLLOW THE STARS: Fans can keep up on the latest on OCU athletics through several ways.
Become a fan of the Oklahoma City University Stars on Facebook by going to www.facebook.com/ocustars.
Become a follower of the OCU Stars on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ocustars.
Check out video of the Stars in action at www.youtube.com/ocustars.
Fans can sign up to receive OCU Athletics SMS text message alerts, including the latest score updates and headlines from the Stars, by going here.
Fans can sign up to receive the latest OCU athletic headlines via e-mail by going here.
Be sure to catch the OCU Athletics Update video program weekly on ocusports.com, the OCU YouTube Channel or on OCU Athletics' Facebook page. Click here to see the latest edition.

ON THE AIR: OCU athletics has partnered with Stretch Internet to provide live and on-demand audio of the Stars' games. To listen to the game, visit OCU's Stretch portal by clicking here. Andrew Himes will provide the play-by-play.
Watch the game or follow via live stats by clicking here.

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Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly: C; 6' 2"; Senior

#3 Rateska Brown: G; 5' 6"; Senior

#24 Catherine Kruschke: F; 6' 0"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly
: 6' 2"; Senior
: C

#3 Rateska Brown
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

#24 Catherine Kruschke
: 6' 0"; Junior
: F

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#3 Rateska Brown

#24 Catherine Kruschke

Players Mentioned

#21 Ouleymatou Coulibaly

#3 Rateska Brown

#24 Catherine Kruschke